notifications

Notifications should be plain and simple but there’s no stopping developers from improving on them. Why should notifications be boring when you can have fun with them? This NotifWidget is a new app that let’s you interact with notifications right on the lock screen, DayDream screen saver, or home screen. This is pretty much like the Notify! app we featured a few months ago.

As promised, Google has rolled out an update to Google Glass, or to be specific to its MyGlass companion app, that enables users to see regular notifications from their phone right in Google Glass. But as seem to be the practice with Google's updates, version 3.3.0 of the MyGlass app also includes features that are not actually available yet but do prefigure that things that could be coming next once Google flips the switch, most likely on Glass' firmware itself.

For the hundreds (or maybe now thousands?) of owners of the Google Glass, the new update that will be unrolled this week has been a long time coming. Google announced that finally, notifications from the Android smartphone connected to the wearable will now be mirrored to your eyeballs, or rather, the Glass in front of your eyeballs.

One of the biggest problems of being always connected is, well, being always connected. We, not to mention our friends and relatives, lose almost all sense of boundary and time. ( OFFTIME ) is one of those apps the can help you block out times of productivity or silence for yourself, while still keeping in touch with the precious Internet.

Just when you thought that RSS readers are dying, no thanks to Google Reader’s demise, here comes an app that sends notification feeds of things you are subscribed to. The newly updated Pushbullet brings notification feeds that can be subscribed to and notifications from your phone to your desktop so you won’t have to miss another text message or phone call.

As users continue to add more and more apps to their mobile devices, it’s also becoming more important to have an efficient notification system that will stop you from going bonkers. One of the rumored features of the upcoming Android L is a heads up, floating type of notification, which will make it easier to view and handle them. Several apps have already tried to imitate this feature and one of the newer ones is called, what else, HeadsUp.

If you have a bunch of different apps that you run on your Android device that provide notifications when actions are taken or posts are made, it can be hard to keep up with them all without having to keep your phone in your hand constantly. An app called LED Blinker Notifications has launched that will show you flashing light notifications from your hardware LED light for all sorts of apps.

While having multiple devices is the new normal for most people, it can be a pain to receive notifications on all of them. Your desktop, tablet, smartphone and smartwatch all buzzing at the same time for the same app can be tedious and alarming. Skype has found a solution to that for their chat notifications, as you can will now only receive it on the device that you’re currently using.

If you’re one of those who can’t wait until the actual Android L update is here already, there are some apps now that can give you a preview of what it will be like, well at least as far as notifications go. Floatify is one of the earlier apps that does that, and it promises to give your smartphones a smarter way of dealing with notifications. Released just last week, now it has been updated with even more new features.

The more apps you install and use, the more your notifications can get messier and at times, more annoying. Yes, we know you can disable notifications per app, but for the ones that you really can’t let go, you need something to make it more manageable for you while you’re working and doing other activities. The Notific lockscreen notification app will attempt to do that for Android smartphone users.